Happy Thanksgiving (?)

I never really got this holiday beyond the encyclopedia-style definition. It is something I associate mostly with American popular culture.

As a harvest-related festival, it seems somehow out of place in modern Canadian culture. For those who include religion into the mix, I can't relate to thanking god(s). We never observed the holiday in my family, so even the concept of Thanksgiving dinner doesn't really mean anything. It's just a day off from work to me, which I'm certainly not going to complain about.

Does this holiday have any particular meaning for any of you? Do people do the whole turkey thing? The big family dinner or some other ceremony?

Replies to This Discussion

Actually it's the only official holiday that makes any sense at all to me :)

As an atheist who's an environmentalist and a biologist, and third generation for the first 2.5, I think celebrating harvest is actually a great idea. Tho I'll never procreate, if I adopt/foster someday, I might actually make thanksgiving my main family holiday and take the opportunity to honor the food we eat, and take note of the toil and misery that humans and beasts go through to attain it, whether it be slave wages of illegal immigrants, terrible living conditions of beasts, etc. Make it a day when we vow to try to make things better.

I think both solstices and equinoxes should be made into official holidays... They are the best markers of time passing by, and I cringe at the number of people in modern culture who do not even know their definitions... which is normal considering so many people still don't know how many days it takes for the earth to go around the sun... sigh

It's not that I don't think it's a great idea; I just think that many, if not most Canadians are quite disconnected from where their harvest comes from and what's going on in Canadian consumed agriculture. I wonder, is giving thanks for that food a hollow gesture at that point? I prefer your idea of making it a day dedicated to bettering our agricultural practices, which is a much more meaningful sign of thankfulness in my books.